Brief communication: Testing a portable Bullard-type temperature lance confirms highly spatially heterogeneous sediment temperatures under shallow bodies of water in the Arctic

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Miesner, Frederieke, Cable, William Lambert, Overduin, Pier Paul, Boike, Julia
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Arctic; Svalbard; permafrost
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2603-2024; https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/18/2603/2024/

The thermal regime in the sediment column below shallow bodies of water in Arctic permafrost controls benthic habitats and permafrost stability. We present a robust, portable device that measures detailed temperature–depth profiles of the near-surface sediments in less than 1 h. Test campaigns in the Canadian Arctic and on Svalbard have demonstrated its utility in a range of environments during winter and summer. Measured temperatures were spatially heterogeneous, even within single bodies of water. We observed the broadest temperature range in water less than 1 m deep, a zone that is not captured by single measurements in deeper water.